Planting design and plant care tailored to your garden habitat

I provide ecologically informed garden design, renovation, and maintenance, tailored to the unique particulars of your property. A garden grows and looks its best when it's an expression of its place -- of the soil and sun and structures and people that define its natural and domestic habitat. The key to creating a successful garden is to choose plants that harmonize with their setting and with each other. As a horticulturist and ecologist who knows and works with an extensive repertoire of plants, I can partner with you and your property to find and maintain that garden harmony. When the plants fit and express the uniqueness of a place, the result is magical.
Specialties include perennial borders, cottage gardens, expert pruning, habitat plantings, containers, rare ornamentals, and native plant species. You and your garden will appreciate having an experienced horticulturist, ecologist, and plant nerd on your team.
Small properties are welcome, as are plant-loving customers! Mention this website for a free phone consultation to discuss your garden and its possibilities.

Your Place, Your Garden

You and your place are both one of a kind. Your garden should reflect this. Its design should follow from your tastes, your needs, and your vision. And its plants and materials and care should arise from its unique conditions and surroundings. This holds true whether your garden is a window box or a 50-acre estate.

My job is to find that sweet spot where your uniqueness and your place’s uniqueness meet. We blend together your preferences, my plant knowledge, and the particulars of the site, and the garden of your dreams emerges. And a bit of muscle usually helps too.

I especially enjoy designing and tending gardens in which plants and nature work together to create a dynamic plant community that requires relaxed editing rather than rigid control.

I also enjoy collaborating with other landscape professionals, either working side by side or as a consultant (I can usually think of lots of plants and management strategies to meet your design goals).

Creating YOUR Garden

I love creating and maintaining gardens that fit their place, meshing harmoniously and seamlessly with their surroundings. The best gardens blend naturally with their setting in all ways. The may appear to be almost spontaneous, but they take great skill to achieve. It’s a joy to work with a client to make it happen!

Services I can provide to help it happen include:

Identifying your property’s vegetation

Testing the soil (and amending if desired)

Hand-pruning, working with each plant to enhance its natural growth

Planting and maintenance of all types of plants from annuals to small trees

Design and planning

Weeding, using hand tools and no chemicals

Working with you to help you learn all of the above, and more!

Special Plants and Expert Care for Your Special Place

I know and work with an extensive repertoire of plants. This creates more unique possibilities for your unique place. I also grow and sell many of the best ornamental plants for New England gardens at Odyssey Bulbs and Odyssey Perennials. Many are not available elsewhere in the region, or even in the country.

Russell’s more than 25 years as a professional plantsman includes extensive experience in botanical gardens, commercial nurseries, and private practice. His holds a graduate degree in forest science, and is a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist, as well as a member of the Ecological Landscape Alliance. He’s the author of Horticulture Magazine’s “Garden Design: How to Design with Perennials”.